Some of you may recall my post from August wherein I asked about strange
spray around my transom, and wondered about some sort of deformity in the
alumimum hull. Yesterday, because it was cold and I hadn't used the boat in
a couple of weeks, I decided to put on the muffs and start it in the
driveway before going to the boat launch. Terminology might be faulty here,
but I noticed some water spritzing out from where the motor pivots (down
low). Cooling water was flowing fine, however. Oil looks clean (4 stroke
motor, by the way), and there was no oil slick of any kind on the driveway
or around the motor once it was in the water.

Maybe I'm looking for problems where there aren't any. But, if you could
carefully observe an outboard in, say, a tank, what would be signs of
trouble, in terms of effluent? I know....flames would be something to think
about.

Mid size Mercs have a known but largely unacknowlaged problem with the
gasket/grommet between the leg and the powerhead.
It took them about 6 months to finally agree my 60 4 stroke was broke.
Have you checked the water pressure?
If it is much below 3 at idle or ~17 over 4500 RPM you should get it back to
the dealer.

Thanks, Greg. I'll investigate the method for checking water pressure in the
service manual. If it requires tricky tools, I'll probably just take it to
the dealer. He's very strange: He charges very little, and the service is
great. But, he's 45 minutes away, so I'm trying to frighten myself with
information before surrendering the boat during what could be the last good
weather of the fishing season.

"Greg" wrote in message
...
Mid size Mercs have a known but largely unacknowlaged problem with the
gasket/grommet between the leg and the powerhead.
It took them about 6 months to finally agree my 60 4 stroke was broke.
Have you checked the water pressure?
If it is much below 3 at idle or ~17 over 4500 RPM you should get it back
to
the dealer.